About ENDURE

• ENDURE launches co-innovation initiative
  

  There is general consensus across Europe that not enough knowledge generated in the research sphere translates into changes in agricultural practices and, conversely, that innovations generated in collaboration with multiple stakeholders have a far greater chance of producing appropriate and widely used solutions. Against this background, the European Commission launched European Innovation Partnerships, and ENDURE is seeking to build on this momentum with a co-innovation seminar and workshop focused on crop protection within sustainable agriculture.

• Course to focus on modelling for crop health
  

  A short course dedicated to 'Mathematical Modelling for Sustainable Management of Crop Health' is being held in Italy in January and is open to PhD students, post-doctorates and researchers who want to better understand the use of models for plant protection, either because they will be interacting with models or modellers, or because they intend to develop models themselves.

• Disease resistance experts brought together
  

  The first annual meeting of the SUSTAIN (Pathogen-informed strategies for sustainable broad-spectrum crop resistance) Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action takes place this October, bringing together European scientists and breeders seeking to translate breakthroughs in plant-pathogen interaction research into effective breeding strategies for durable disease resistance in cereal and Solanaceous crops.

• Global project launched to tackle invasive pests
  

  A new project has been launched to promote the development of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices for the sustainable control of the leafminer Tuta absoluta and the spotted wing fly Drosophila suzukii, invasive pests of tomato and fruit crops respectively.

• Candidates sought for agroecology summer school
  

  Candidates for the fourth International Summer School in Agroecology (ISSAE), being held at the Ecole Nationale de Formation Agronomique in Toulouse, south-west France, have until May 30 to complete their application.

• Priority IPM research needs identified
  

  A European team of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) experts has completed a preliminary analysis of the most urgent research and extension needs for accelerating the development of IPM across the European Union.

• Review: Non-chemical weed control in arable crops
  

  A pan-European group of weed specialists has examined the possibilities for using non-chemical methods for weed control in reduced tillage arable systems. The review covers the redesigning of cropping systems, cover crops, stubble management strategies, tactics to strengthen crop growth relative to weed growth and direct mechanical weed control methods. Lead author Bo Melander, of Denmark’s Aarhus University, explains more:

• Advisers test learning approaches
  

  In the quest to provide agricultural advisers with new tools to accompany a reduction in pesticide use, the New Advisers project has tested three learning approaches in eight European countries. The results of these trials are now being analysed and, eventually, instructional manuals and videos will be produced to encourage their wider use.

• Meeting: Induced resistance in plants
  

  Making the leap from success in the laboratory to success in the field will be the theme of the sixth meeting of the IOBC’s ‘Induced resistance in plants against insects and diseases’ working group.

• INRA holds international Fusarium seminar
  

  INRA's Mycology and Food Safety research unit is organising the 12th European Fusarium Seminar to be held in Bordeaux May 12-16, 2013. The conference brings together researchers, breeders, industry representatives, and policy makers concerned by Fusarium diseases and the reduction of mycotoxins in cereals. It provides an international forum to address the current state of the art in Fusarium biology and crop resistance breeding.